Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Back to the Future for Renters

Today, the 21st of October, 2015 is Back to the Future Day. Movie-goers are celebrating the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future in the second film of the series. Marty came originally from 1985, and it made us wonder what had changed.
So what did renting look like in 1985? See below- the short story, there are many more renters than there used to be, and we're paying a lot more rent! Wages haven't gone up as much as rents have, and groceries have barely gone up at all (in fact in real terms, the kinds of items we've included here have come down in price).

Also in 1985 then NSW Housing Minister Frank Walker announced the first tenants advice services to be funded by the interest earned on tenants bonds. This was a big step up in capacity from the previous network of entirely voluntary services. At the time, we were the first state to utilise bond interest money in such a truly innovative, sensible way.
Now in 2015 we're asking for those services to continue to be funded at fair and sustainable levels in the More Bang for Your Bond campaign- in just a few weeks time we'll be presenting our petition and postcards at parliament house. Details to come, but there's still plenty of time to show your support!

3 comments:

Certainly some interesting Facts and Figures in this article. I note I earn well under average wage :( but am not surprised.I also note you say bread is $1.90, I pay $0.85, at coles. :) I enjoy the well thought out and researched articles on the Brown Counch, keep the good work up. :)

Affordability in Sydney is really under question, it's a national disgrace that many Australians are being pushed out of the Sydney rental market, in particular students and young people. Needless to say things have certainly changed in terms of housing, rents and affordability since the 1980's.

We had a discussion on the beach (Northern Beaches) this weekend and some were stating they paid around 70 percent of their income on rent... Whaaaaaat...? That's crazy! Thank you -we need more article like these.

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